A photographer who leaves his studio to go out on photographic assignment is faced with a myriad of problems. To begin with, every time he leaves the studio he must go through the painstaking process of choosing which equipment will be needed for that particular assignment. When the photographer makes these choices he runs the almost inevitable risk of forgetting something. Professional photographic equipment also tends to be expensive, relatively delicate, and cumbersome. Photographic locations, on the other hand run the gamut including both indoor and outdoor sites that present logistical problems. The photographer may have to move his equipment up and down stairs, around sharp corners, through doorways, over uneven terrain or in and out of a car trunk just for a single assignment. Equipment transport problems are, therefore, of paramount concern to the assignment photographer. Once on location, the photographer's problems do not end but rather change in character. Additional equipment is usually required, since few locations have the lighting or reflecting means necessary for quality photography.
Conventional photographic equipment cases have tended to comprise box-like structures that are particularly heavy and/or bulky to transport over any great distance. These cases have also been limiting with respect to the amount and type of photographic equipment that can be taken on location. Furthermore, wheeled carrying devices have generally been designed without the specific needs of the professional photographer in mind. Photographic equipment storage or carrying devices that also combine a means to support such equipment while in use are illustrated in several patents. For example, Chin, U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,573, discloses a photographic equipment cart having two sets of wheels which are interchangeable, one set for another, so that the cart can be readily converted from outdoor to indoor use and vice versa. The cart is capable of transporting equipment such as that used by a photographer and also providing a steady base for the camera mount. Parts of the cart are foldable and others collapsible for convenience in storing the cart in a confined space.
Crete, U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,835, illustrates a photographic light boom and camera support apparatus adapted to be carried on a mobile tripod with the boom extending laterally and upwardly from the camera support. The boom supports three lighting devices two of which are adapted to be moved to positions at the same side of the boom, or one may be at one side and the other at the opposite side.
Those devices already available to photographers including the above-mentioned patents, do not contemplate a device combining features that minimizes the effort required to transport such equipment to varied locations, makes lighting and related structural support means portable and a part of such a device, and accommodates all of a photographer's necessary equipment for location work in a safe and secure manner.